The big plan to make pay-per-view super cards featuring both MMA and boxing has apparently already been knocked out … for the time being, anyway.
ESPN.com reports Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions has changed its mind about combining the two sports. Last month Golden Boy and MMA upstart Affliction announced a deal to co-promote events.
The deal came in the days following Affliction’s cancellation of a scheduled card in Las Vegas.
The move was met with skepticism from fans of both sports. However, many in the MMA world hoped the partnership could lead to bigger paydays for fighters and help make Affliction viable competition to the UFC.
Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com that criticism of merging the sports was part of the decision to scrap the idea.
Here’s a snip:
“We want to get to know the MMA market better and truly evaluate if there are synergies between the two sports. We are planning to do some focus groups where we will ask boxing and MMA fans how they would feel about it. Once we get the results of that, then we’ll be in a much better position to decide which strategy to apply.”
The companies still plan to promote the Affliction “Day of Reckoning” on Jan. 24 in Anaheim, Calif. However, it will be as an MMA-only event and include no boxing matches.
“Day of Reckoning” will be headlined with a blockbuster heavyweight showdown between Fedor Emelianenko and Andrei Arlovski.
56 Comments »
Thank God. how anyone would want to go from watching mma to boxing is beyond me. it’s like having great sex and then getting finished off with a handjob.
My main concern, besides the fact that it’s the dumbest idea since the conception of junie, is that affliction might be opening the gate to all the gary shaws of boxing to come ruin this sport.
That and the fact that you would be watching 10 rounds of boxing comparred to 3 or 5 or MMA, it’d be a total jip on us. Maybe I’d be wrong though but as it stands right now, I would not pay for a MMA/Boxing card.
me either
I would absolutly never pay for boxing, even if it is mixed with MMA. I watched De La Hoya/Maywether fight and that is it for me, never again. I was yelling at Oscar to take him down or throw some leg kicks (LOL). I bet the boxing fans wouldn’t mind seeing some MMA though, but I guess I am biased since I am a huge MMA fan.
For reals! When I Watch boxing now I keep waiting for someone to throw a headkick
I think the last boxing match I paid for was a Tyson fight, and I still want my money back. I can’t think of a major boxing match since the mid 90’s that lived up to the hype.
I think your analogy is a little off, getting finished with a few tuggs isn’t the worst thing that can happen… puting boxing on the same card as mma is much worse that that, its more like getting finished with sand paper in that hand and being walked in on by a family member at the same time!
It would be like having sex with Jessica Alba, Simpson, and Biel at the same time, then just before you finished, they swapped them out for Amy Winehouse.
who said thats bad? lol
lol!
LOL, when will everyone just realize that Zuffa is the best out there. UF is the big leagues, WEC is the minor leagues and lighter weights. period, why is there a discussion or animosity about this?
I want all the best fighters able to fight one another, sorry, but call me crazy!
Hey Kevin have you read that Affliction was working out a deal with UFC? That Affliction was going to stop making fights, and the UFC would allow them back the way it used to be. But on the EliteXC show there was alot of promotion that Fedor was fighting in January. So when Affliction and UFC got on a conference call things went bad and a guy from Affliction told Lorenzo “you f*cked with the wrong guy”
yeah, I saw that…dumb on afflictions part to try to get in the UFC’s good graces and then go do business with elite! affliction fights will be done after the next show, thats if they can afford to pay the salaries for that one. then what? will fedor come over or go back to Japan to crush some cans for $$
Thats why im not a fan of Fedor. He could sign with the UFC for only a few fights to prove hes the best HW. But instead he WILL go to Japan and fight cans after Affliction folds!
thank you for pretty much copying and pasting a story from the main page like 3 days ago. where the hell were you?
lol, I thought it, but he asked me so nicely.
Take it easy homie! I havent been on this site for a few days and didnt realize that. And I had read it on another site.
if you wanted any fighter to be able to fight any other fighter, you would be for free agency, not a promotion that binds fighter’s souls.
i think everyone would love that kevin, but they live in the real world and know it won’t happen.who dosn’t want to see the best fight each other but because of some fighters and some things with dana it won’t ever happen.
This is old news. Affliction/Golden Boy are still partners in terms of working together. This just states that they won’t be putting MMA and Boxing together in the same card, which is a good thing to do.
The Day of Reckoning will never happen!
Once again proof of what happens when people who know nothing about MMA get together and try to form a company or partnership. Take a lesson from EliteXC. You need a damn focus group to figure out whether there are synergies between the two sports and their fans. I’ll save you the money…there aren’t! you fu#@ing morons!(In the words of Dana White)
I think Golden Boy got scared after Elite XC went under. Theyre playing it safe.
and so it begins….piece by piece. affliction is going to lose its partners, its backers and will soon be out of business!
I think you’ve taken the article out of context. Nothing saying they aren’t still business partners. Hell, Affliction always has their logo splashed across boxing rings….that isn’t going to change.
Adam you should really call the Sylvan Learning Center because you have god awful reading comprehension.
No big deal……..Affliction has more top 10 HW’s than any other org. Going to be a great show, with or without boxing.
I’ll buy the PPV. So will the “I hate every org other than the UFC, and hope they all die in hell” so called “MMA fans”.
another quality post by introvert. they got 3 top 10 HW’s and no other top 10 fighters in tha world.. have fun watching the card. I won’t buy another affliction card after the last one!
LMAO!!!!!!!!…..
UFC’s top HW’s
Nog – beaten twice by Fedor.
Randy – hasn’t fought in a loooong time.
Mir – please.
Lesnar – 2-1…please.
Gonzaga – tough dude, but not going anywhere near the top.
Affliction
Fedor – beat Nog twice…beat Silvia in 36 seconds (that took Couture the distance).
Barnett – Could easily be top 3 in UFC (along with Nog/Couture)
Arlovski – Also could easily be top 3 in the UFC.
Silvia – Long time UFC champ…’nuff said.
Affliction owns the HW division. Sorry UFC huggers.
whats your point? UFC owns every other division, and HW’s are
usually boring to watch. I’m a mma fan, not UFC, but anyone who thinks that the UFC isn’t #1 overall and will be the only organization around by the end of next year is just a moron…
So you are going to buy the ppv for Affliction??? If i had to pick a ppv in Jan, I’m going for BJ Penn vs GSP. period.
I mean come on guys!! why is there even a discussion about Affliction. How many shows do you think they are going to put on in 2009, regardless of whether they fold or not?? And okay, Fedor has two really interesting match ups left ( thats if Josh Barnett ever steps up to the plate). Then what.
Who said the UFC isn’t #1 overall? They are.
Fans, fighters, and MMA as a whole would benifit from a strong #2 though, and it bewilders me to think that there are MMA fans out there that think 1 org in a monopoly would be best for anyone involved (besides the 1 org). Anyone who wishes the UFC were to monoplize is “just a moron.”
Think about it this way…
If GM were to monopolize the car industry, do you think that every car salesman in the world would be hired on to their company, given raises over their last jobs (that folded), and we as purchasers would be sold GM vehicles at uninflated prices?
No fucking way!!!!!
Introvert,
I don’t agree with many of your posts, but this is spot on.
Hey Chris, that is exacly why Affliction will fold after this PPV. The UFC doesn’t even need to counter program this next Affliction fight and fans will still choose UFC over Affliction. With two UFC PPVs in January, I know I wont be wasting my money on Affliction. $100 is more than enough to spend on a PPV in one month. Good bye Affliction.
actually, most of their divisions are sh*t. Their 205 is phenomenal…. that is about it.
Quite down, introtard, the adults are talking.
“Quite”
LMAO
Thanks for the spelling lesson, genius.
A spelling correction… Awesome. Instead of reading the dictionary, maybe you should touch up on your MMA knowledge. Please enlighten us to the outstanding stable of HW’s Affliction has.
Affliction HW’s own UFC’s HW’s.
see my above post.
Just thought it was kind of ironic that the guy who calls me “introtard” can’t spell words that my 10 year old nephew can spell, then says “the adults are talking”….that’s all.
BTW…it should be “the adults are speaking”…just so you know for next time.
If makes you feel better to correct my spelling and grammer, so be it. This is not an english class, this is a MMA site and it doesn’t change the fact that you are the most hated person on this site. I will no longer waste my time on you, I will let the rest of the maniacs rip you to shreds because you never add or posts anything remotely intelligent or insightful to this website.
Mania won’t post my comment, but don’t worry introtard, since you offer nothing intelligent or insightful to this website I will no longer waste my time on you.
BNF is blatantly a troll and you shouldn’t feed him.
Arlovski?? Sylvia??
UFC castaways.
Affliction has Fedor. Thats it. Barnett is good but I seriously doubt he’d own all UFC heavyweights.
I think Introvert works for Affliction or M1 or something.
what ufc hws? Carwin and Lesnar lol
!!!LEARN HOW TO READ PEOPLE!!!
They are still partners! They just won’t have Hybrid cards yet, which is a good thing.
The Jan 24th event will still take place as an ALL MMA card, which is what Affliction mentioned A MONTH A GO.
They became partners to put on Hybrid cards. That was the whole purpose of the deal Joseph. I for one think this is a clear indication that the whole partnership wont ever go beyond apparel.
Funny since Golden Boy will produce their January show.
did anyone notice ‘the t shirt guy’ in the crowd at the Hopkins fight last week.
The ring canvas had quite a large affliction logo on it too.
Yep. Just because they aren’t doing the MMA/Boxing events (right now) doesn’t mean they aren’t still in business.
Affliction/Golden Boy are actually still producing the January show Fedor vs Arlovski.
affliction may have the best heavies now, but you will notice that ufc has alot of the up and coming heavies like carwin, velasquez and lesnar. these guys are the new breed, and in the many years to come will make the current crop of heavies look foolish.
This idea is ridiculous. Boxing is dying, not to mention boring.
theyre waiting for things to happen(goldenboy). i dont care what Dana white is saying but reading the business side of MMA all is not well.ifl elite x are down.station casinos is in serious debt of 5 billion..and the have a negative c rating from Stndard and Poor..the BIG fight of Randy and Brock has not yet sold out…
also the BOXING is dead or dying is not true.Dana has been chanting it since 2006..then look pacquiao vs dela hoya sold on dec 6 fight sold out in 3 mins..a total of 17 million on tickets alone.brock and randy…which is 3 million worth only in ticket sales…is still not sold out..its been 2 weeks….also top mma fighters getting 500T and top boxers get 40 – 50 million–is just a ridiculus difference(manny pacquiao at 135 lbs gets 5 million dollars…how much do WEC fighters get?)….it may be boring but beating it business wise is a loooong way to go…mma should at least be in the olympics first..